On 5 January 2020, more than 50 masked people armed with rods, sticks and acid attacked the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and injured more than 39 students and teachers.

[13][14] Although any one clear motive has not emerged, the attack has been described by some as a way to prevent students from raising their voice against a fee hike and the Citizenship Amendment Act.

[10] Police have said that three of the masked attackers have been identified but no arrests have been made, and complaints have been filed as a single FIR (First Information Report) on unknown people.

[10] On 5 January, at around 7:00 p.m., a masked mob[10] armed with iron rods, sledgehammers, sticks, and bricks attacked the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, injuring students and teachers, as well as vandalising hostels.

[11] The leaders of student bodies with liberal views and those who spoke against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist policies were attacked.

[8] Police said they received 50 SOS calls between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m., however, they were only given written permission to enter the campus at 7:45 p.m.[42] The 36 students who were injured and admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS) were discharged within 24 hours.

[46] On 6 December, Swati Maliwal, the chief of Delhi Commission for Women, issued summonses to the police over the assault on female students in the attack.

[47] The JNUSU statements after the incident said, "The Vice Chancellor [...] is behaving like a mobster who perpetuates violence [...] For nearly seventy days now, the students of JNU have been fighting a courageous battle to save their university from the clutches of privatization and greed [...] Today on 5 January they imported goons from outside, especially DU".

[41] The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA) wrote a third letter to the President of India Ram Nath Kovind regarding the "urgent need for the removal of professor M Jagadesh Kumar from his position as the vice chancellor".

The letter stated that, "Yesterday's unprecedented events at the University have served to highlight once again the extremely grave consequences of delay in heeding to our appeal".

[65][66] On 12 January, the Indian National Congress fact-finding committee released its report on their investigation into the attack, calling the incident "state-sponsored".

The report also demanded the investigation of other faculty members (who planned the attacks) and the security company hired to ensure safety on the campus.

[75][76] One FIR claimed that a group of students broke into the Communication and Information Services (CIS) office on 4 January and damaged the servers and other equipment inside.

Another FIR alleged that the vandalism by students on 3 January severely affected the biometric attendance and closed-circuit camera surveillance systems.

[77] On 10 January 2020, three JNU professors filed a petition in the High Court seeking a direction to Delhi Police and the government to preserve data, closed-circuit camera footage, and all evidence associated with the attack.

[81] On 13 January, The Delhi High Court issued notice to Apple, Google and WhatsApp on the petitions seeking directions to preserve data, CCTV footage and other evidence.

The court directed Delhi police to summon and seize the phones of all members of the two WhatsApp groups—'Friends of RSS' and 'Unity Against Left'—who had allegedly planned and executed attacks on the campus.

[82] A petition filed in a Delhi Court by Professor Sucharita Sen of JNU sought lodging of FIR into the act of violence in which she suffered a severe head injury.

The plea claimed that the complainant had to approach the court due to inaction of the police authorities despite having "clear and cogent" facts and underlying material placed by her before the investigative agency.

She had been seen wearing a check shirt, a light blue scarf and carrying a stick, in the video recording of the attack and several media outlets had identified her.

[85] Police have issued a notice under IPC Section 160 to the woman and two other men involved, Akshat Awasthi and Rohit Shah who were also found out to be the members of ABVP by the Alt News and the India Today.

[47] The Minister of External Affairs, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee, both alumni of JNU, condemned the attacks.

[9] Various people condemned the violence, including Anand Mahindra and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Congress Party member Priyanka Gandhi, who blamed the right, and Kapil Sibal, who asked for a probe.

[47] All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi expressed his opinion on the JNU attack, saying that it was meant to "punish the students as they dared to stand up".

[89] The journal Nature in an editorial published on January 14, 2020, stated that the "government and state authorities must step in and stop violent attacks on academic campuses [...] Some of the peaceful protests are being met with violence, and university campuses are not immune [...] Delhi police "failed to provide protection" to the students who were being attacked; "India's authorities must take the necessary steps to protect their nation's universities and their people's freedom of speech.

We'll win again tomorrow), "Is baar nahin hum chhodenge, itihas ki dhara modenge" (We'll not let go this time, we'll change the direction of history), "Zulmi jab jab zulm karega satta ke hathiyaron se, chappa chappa goonj uthega inquilab ke naaro se" (The tyrant will be countered with the chants of revolution) and the famous chants of "Azadi" (Freedom) were recited throughout the protest.

[100][101][102] On 9 January, around 1,000 JNU students and teachers held a protest march to the Ministry of Human Resource Development office in Delhi demanding the resignation of the vice-chancellor.

[103] After reaching the office a group of students decided to continue their march up to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of the President of India.

[114] Padukone was subjected to massive criticism by members of the ruling BJP party who also asked people to boycott her upcoming movie Chhapaak.

[115] She was praised for standing up against a crackdown on dissent, as Bollywood actors usually avoid making statements, fearing backlash and negative consequences for their films.